New year, new websites! Schools worldwide went live with their websites during the first month of 2024, from amazing best-in-class custom designs to more than 80 impressive Themes.

If you weren’t aware, 2024 is the year of the dragon according to the Chinese zodiac, and these websites have set the bar accordingly: charismatic, intelligent, confident, and powerful.

There’s a lot to cover this month, including beautiful designs, engaging site content, and user-friendly experiences from public school districts, charters, and private schools around the globe, from Iowa to Thailand; let’s take a look!

Schaumburg Christian School

As a ministry of Bethel Baptist Church, Schaumburg Christian School in Illinois offers exceptional programs in a Christian environment. Its new site is beautiful, with warm shades of gold, brown, and reddish-orange that help content pop off a black background. The subtle gradients flow comfortably into design blocks using repeated, branded text.

There’s a unique approach to navigating the site, too — every direction provides options, with quick links and more up-top, admission-focused calls to action in the sticky navigation on the right and a navigation menu on the left side.

A panel of “SCS Voices” showcases testimonials from students and families recounting their experiences with the school, and along with social integration for Instagram, there’s a lot of social proof for visitors to explore.

As Schaumburg Christian School recapped on its site:

“Finalsite took our vision of “Building Conquerors” and helped us put it into reality. As one of the first projects in our 5-year plan, we are excited for this milestone… We are grateful to Finalsite for walking us through the process and helping us create a site that truly shows what SCS stands for and what we want to accomplish.”

Additional highlights include:

• Integration with Blackbaud to populate data for athletics, calendar, and directory information
• Mobile-friendly links to its divisions and icons for fast facts
• Page pops to call out special events and announcements

Iowa City Community School District 

As the 4th largest school district in the state of Iowa, ICCSD brings an amazing site design that will make you want to keep exploring! Beautiful photography, script fonts, custom image buttons, and creative backgrounds — there’s a lot of energy!

Beautiful branding ties together the district’s homepage with its dozens and dozens of other schools, creating a consistent user experience. Keep an eye out for homepage elements creatively reused across the site, and you’ll also notice some table/tab/accordion styles that help keep content organized!

Check out these highlights:

• Warm and welcoming video panels with student and teacher testimonials
• Social integration with the latest social media posts
• Lots of helpful resources for families looking to enroll
• A comprehensive navigational structure makes it easy to jump to different areas of the site — especially on a mobile device
• Snapshot overviews of each of its 45+ schools that serve 14K students

Rugby School Thailand

As the biggest school campus in Thailand, Rugby School brings that extraordinary experience to life with well-written copy, vibrant imagery, and a professional design that captures its high standards for quality.

The language choices and wording work well with its brand: “The whole person, the whole point,” “Discover your journey,” and “one community, many stories.” High-quality visuals throughout the site capture the excitement of school life and all the meaningful moments in the classrooms.

A beautifully designed map calls out the 80-acre campus’ proximity to nearby cities and airports, a great resource for curious international families.

More highlights include:

• A unique 360-degree virtual tour with integrated videos that allow prospective families to experience the school before setting foot on campus
• Social media integration to display the latest content from the arts, sciences, athletics, and student life
• Great use of Composer's Post module to showcase the latest school news, events, updates, and more!

British School Manila

As one of the oldest and only non-profit international schools in Manila, British School Manila welcomes more than 52 nationalities and 950 students annually to its campus with a British international education that supports the student's development as global citizens.

Look carefully, and subtle design flairs and custom image buttons introduce users to three divisions before testimonials from students, teachers, and alumni share the stories that define BSM. 

There’s a lot of opportunity to engage with the site, too: panels expand on hover, revealing more details about fast facts and figures, design elements slide in from the left and right, and CTAs smoothly animate to become clickable.

Be sure to check out:

• The great use of secondary colors on the CTAs and panel backgrounds
• Searchable and filterable news on the Lion’s Roar makes browsing the latest updates easy
• Animated numbers quickly tally to some impressive fast facts

Many other schools are celebrating their recent launches — congratulations to these fantastic sites that recently launched!

• El Camino Real Charter High School 
• New Albany-Plain Local Schools 
• The Montgomery Academy
• Camp Pasquaney
• St. Louis University High School
   
• PASCAL Education
• Wyoming Seminary
• St. Isidore School
• Fayetteville Academy

And don’t miss these Theme sites that launched in January!

• Andover Regional School District
• Coventry Public School District
• Winton Woods City School District
• American Academy Casablanca 
• Bettis Preparatory Leadership Academy
   
• Mathis Independent School District
• Danville Community School Corporation
• Maypearl ISD
• Hoover City Schools
• Woods Charter School
   
• Warrensburg-Latham Consolidated USD 11
• East Valley Institute of Tech District 401
• Vance County Public Schools
• Storey County School District
• Fairfield Public Schools
   
• Wilkinson County Schools
• Chelsea School District
• Florence School District 2 
• Saratoga Union School District
• Yreka Union School District
   
• Lasalle-Peru High School District 120
• Colegio Maya
• La Salle College High School | Together As Brothers 
• Southeastern Co-Op Education District
• St. Peter's Episcopal School
   
• Monticello Independent School District 882
• Oneida Herkimer Madison Boces
• Whitehall-Coplay School District
• Manvel School District 125
• Wayne-Finger Lakes Boces - Dansville
   
• Pleasant Valley School District (PA)
• Tuscaloosa City School District
• St Joseph School
• New Hartford Public Schools
• Sierra Blanca Independent School District
   
• Cardinal Newman High School
• Petal School District
• Caruthers Unified School District
• Raisin City Elementary School District
• Argyle Independent School District
   
• Crestview Local School District
• Compass for Lifelong Learning
• Conewago Valley School District
• Lincolnview Local 
• Homer Community School District
   
• Mahwah Township School District
• Park Ridge School District 
• Custer School District 16-1
• Destiny High School
• Raceland Worthington ISD
   
• Orland School District
• Meigs Local School District
• Washington School Public Relations Association (WSPRA)
• Selah School District 119
• Wood Dale SD 7
   
• Lake Dallas Independent School District
• Hastings-on-Hudson
• Watertown-Mayer School District 111
• Mansfield Township School District
• Mapleton Public Schools
   
• Amity School District 4J
• Island Union School District
• Nassau BOCES Lansingburgh CSD
• Ava School District R1
• Chualar Union School District
   
• Worth County School District
• Weymouth Township Schools
• Little Egg Harbor SD
• St. John Notre Dame School
• Vistamar School
   
• McCallie Summer Camps
• Will County School District 92
• Winnebago Cusd 323
• The Learning Choice Academy
• Dallas County Schools
   
• Tewksbury Township School District
• Elizabethton City Schools
• Athens City School District 
• Staples Motley Independent School
• Cedarwood School
• Tigard-Tualatin School District
   

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Connor has spent the last decade within the field of marketing and communications, working with independent schools and colleges throughout New England. As Finalsite’s Senior Content Marketing Manager, Connor plans and executes marketing strategies and digital content across the web. A former photojournalist, he has a passion for digital media, storytelling, coffee, and creating content that connects.